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PSH-13-0122 - In the Matter of Personnel Security

On February 21, 2014, an OHA Administrative Judge issued a decision in which she concluded that an individual should not be granted a security clearance. A Local Security Office (LSO) conducted a Personnel Security Interview of the individual to address concerns about his financial difficulties, specifically, his 20 outstanding debts, failure to pay his federal income taxes for 2008 and a lien on his property for his failure to pay his taxes. The individual started facing financial troubles in 2009 when his real estate business failed. The LSO also raised concerns about the individual’s misrepresentations as to his delinquent accounts and non-criminal court actions on his security form. After conducting a hearing and evaluating the documentary and testimonial evidence, the Administrative Judge found while the individual mitigated some of the concerns regarding his outstanding debts, his debts still remained significantly high. Moreover, he had yet to modify his mortgages concerning some of the debts related to his real estate and accordingly, he did not make payments on them for several years. The individual also did not mitigate the concerns regarding his failure to list all of his outstanding debts on his security form. For these reasons, the Hearing Officer could not find that the individual resolved the security concerns related to his handling of finances or his dishonest statements to the DOE.